


No deal

by i_gaze_at_scully



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:27:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21546805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_gaze_at_scully/pseuds/i_gaze_at_scully
Summary: Prompt: AU (canon-divergent) where Mulder decides not to trade Samantha for Scully.
Kudos: 2





	No deal

1\. He can’t lose her, not now, not so soon after she’s re-entered his life. But it’s Scully, my god it’s Scully. He knows they’ve used her to get to him before, that she is his Achilles heel. It is for that precise reason that she was taken, three months of her life gone forever. It’s the reason she’s been taken now. He saves hating himself for it for later, focuses on the cost benefit analysis at hand. Would they really kill Scully for Samantha? Risk him exposing the entire alien race and its project with the information Samantha’s given him? They’d have to kill him, too, if they killed her. They wouldn’t, he decides. He tells himself over and over that they wouldn’t.

“Where is she? What’s this about a negotiation?” Skinner asks in a cloud of anxious confusion.

“He won’t negotiate. He wants to make a trade, Scully for Samantha.” Mulder looks forlornly at his sister. “I can’t do it.”

2\. Scully has to believe that Mulder will be smart enough not to break protocol, not to negotiate with an abductor and that if he’s not, that Skinner will stop him at least. She wracks her brain for who Mulder could possibly be with that they want so badly, but she can’t figure it out. Her captor spends no time with her, leaving her no opportunity for questioning or any attempt at a sly interrogation. Handcuffed to a radiator, again, she tries to rest. She may only have an hour to live.

3\. “Fox, you have to. He’ll kill her, he–” Samantha is strangely adamant about it, and Mulder just shakes his head. 

Samantha grabs his hand and pulls him out towards the door. “Come on,” she says. “There’s something you need to see.”

4\. He is furious. He wants to smash all the equipment in the women’s health clinic, punch a wall. “It was all a lie!” He yells at the four Samantha clones. “A goddamn lie!” 

“Fox, listen to us,” the original clone insists, grabbing his arm. He shakes her off. “I took a great risk bringing you here, but I knew you wouldn’t help us if we didn’t save your partner.”

“We know where your sister is,” another clone says. 

“Bullshit!” He screams. “You’ve lied to me this whole time!” 

“How do you think we know so much about her?” A clone across the room posits. “Go to the bridge. Make the exchange, with one of us. We are expendable. She,” she says, pointing to the woman he thought was his sister, “is not. Save your partner and save us. Please.” 

He lets his blood boil for a minute more, a minute fraught with tension and fear from all. “Okay,” he finally agrees. 

5\. They race to the bridge and arrive in the nick of time. Even though he knows she’s not real, his heart breaks when he looks over at the clone he thought was his sister. When the assassination attempt fails and the clone falls into the water, Mulder is numb. 

“Who was she, Mulder?” Scully asks. 

“A lie,” he says simply. “Nothing but a lie.”


End file.
